arm64: sme: Use STR P to clear FFR context field in streaming SVE mode
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 5 fixed, 2 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: arm64: sme: Use STR P to clear FFR context field in streaming SVE mode The FFR is a predicate register which can vary between 16 and 256 bits in size depending upon the configured vector length. When saving the SVE state in streaming SVE mode, the FFR register is inaccessible and so commit 9f5848665788 ("arm64/sve: Make access to FFR optional") simply clears the FFR field of the in-memory context structure. Unfortunately, it achieves this using an unconditional 8-byte store and so if the SME vector length is anything other than 64 bytes in size we will either fail to clear the entire field or, worse, we will corrupt memory immediately following the structure. This has led to intermittent kfence splats in CI [1] and can trigger kmalloc Redzone corruption messages when running the 'fp-stress' kselftest: | ============================================================================= | BUG kmalloc-1k (Not tainted): kmalloc Redzone overwritten | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | 0xffff000809bf1e22-0xffff000809bf1e27 @offset=7714. First byte 0x0 instead of 0xcc | Allocated in do_sme_acc+0x9c/0x220 age=2613 cpu=1 pid=531 | __kmalloc+0x8c/0xcc | do_sme_acc+0x9c/0x220 | ... Replace the 8-byte store with a store of a predicate register which has been zero-initialised with PFALSE, ensuring that the entire field is cleared in memory. [1] https://lore.kernel.org/r/CA+G9fYtU7HsV0R0dp4XEH5xXHSJFw8KyDf5VQrLLfMxWfxQkag@mail.gmail.com
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Total
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.1.39, 6.3.13, 6.4.4, 6.5
Red Hat 1 advisory
- RHSA-2024:2394 Released 2024-04-30 · Red Hat rating Importantkernel security, bug fix, and enhancement update
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) kernel-64k-debug-devel-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-64k-debug-devel-matched-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-64k-devel-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4 +11
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) bpftool-7.3.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-64k-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4 +29
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 9) kernel-tools-libs-devel-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, libperf-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux NFV (v. 9) kernel-rt-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-core-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-debug-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4 +11
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux RT (v. 9) kernel-rt-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-core-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-debug-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4 +9
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2024:2394 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2024:2394 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2024:2394 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux NFV (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2024:2394 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux RT (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2024:2394 |
Not affected: 3 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2023-53713
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-f5qp-mjwc-27gf
- 2026-10-16 CISA SSVC decision points changed
References
More Linux vulnerabilities
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- TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
- TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
Sources
- CVE-2023-53713 · CVE Program
- CVE-2023-53713 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-f5qp-mjwc-27gf · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2023-53713 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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